Improvement Stories:
Helping Patients Butt Out
Partners HealthCare Tobacco Treatment Task Force is working with the Partners HealthCare Nursing leadership to identify all smokers who enter a Partners HealthCare hospital, clinical practice, or health center. The goal is to offer services to all smokers seen across Partners HealthCare to help them beat their dependence on tobacco. During a hospital stay, all smokers meet with a smoking cessation counselor. They are also offered smoking cessation medication and they are encouraged to take part in a tobacco treatment program when they leave. They are told about programs at Partners HealthCare or the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.